


this is a gift, it comes with a price

by mardia



Category: Chuck (TV)
Genre: Community: picfor1000, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-24
Updated: 2010-07-24
Packaged: 2017-10-10 18:56:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/103056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mardia/pseuds/mardia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ellie's not going to Yale, and she's not leaving her brother behind either. Set in pre-canon. Written for the <a href="http://community.livejournal.com/picfor1000/profile"><img/></a><a href="http://community.livejournal.com/picfor1000/"><strong>picfor1000</strong></a> challenge, my prompt is <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/billbradyphotography/3984376771/">here.</a></p>
            </blockquote>





	this is a gift, it comes with a price

Ms. Gregory hesitates for a moment, then slowly takes off her bifocals and sets them down on her desk. "Ellie," she begins carefully, "—believe me when I say that I'm not discouraging you from going to UCLA, it's a wonderful school—"

Ellie keeps the smile on her face, and keeps from shifting in her seat. She's just talking with her guidance counselor, it's not like she's not being interrogated by the CIA. "But you're wondering why I'm not attending Yale instead," she finishes.

"Well, yes,' Ms. Gregory says. "Particularly since they offered you a scholarship."

Ellie thinks of the different explanations she's prepared, and in an impulsive move that she doesn't even fully understand, rejects them all in favor of the truth.

"I can't leave my brother alone."

Ms. Gregory frowns. "But Ellie, your brother wouldn't be alone, your father—"

"Is unreliable," Ellie explains, her voice even. "Don't get me wrong," she adds quickly, because the last thing she needs is for her guidance counselor to get the wrong idea and call Social Services or something, "my dad isn't—he's not abusive or anything, he's not even really neglectful—he holds down a steady job, comes home every night, and he brings back his paycheck every two weeks—" and it's a refrain she's used a million times before, a meager list she recites to keep the resentment at a minimum. "But he isn't—he's not a parent, not really."

Ms. Gregory's just watching her now, and the naked sympathy in her eyes is causing Ellie's throat to go tight, but she keeps talking, needing to explain her situation, needing to verbalize, at least once, the reality of what her family is, and what it'll never be.

"When I was twelve, I taught myself how to cook because nobody else in the house was cooking, or knew how. Two years after that, I took over the family finances. My dad brings home the paycheck, but I'm the one who makes sure that the bills and the rent gets paid on time. I make sure my brother goes to school with clean clothes, that he turns his homework in on time, that he gets good grades and stays out of trouble."

_I take care of him,_ she doesn't say. _I take care of him because there is no one else, because our mother checked out on us years ago and my father never bothers to check in. Because I'm all he's got. _

Because he's all that I've got.

"UCLA's a great school," Ellie insists. "It's a great school and I always planned to go there, I really only applied to Yale on a whim, I never thought—"and she cuts herself off before she finishes the rest of that sentence.

She really hadn't ever thought she'd get in. And thank God, she'd picked up the mail that day, before Chuck could see the thick envelope from Yale with her sister's name on it, telling her that she'd been accepted into one of the most prestigious universities in the country.

As far as Chuck knows, Ellie's only applied to colleges in California, and UCLA is her dream school. And he's right, she reminds herself fiercely. UCLA is her dream, it's exactly what she wants.

"I'm going to UCLA, Ms. Gregory," she says instead. "I'm going to live at home and go to school here. My brother's three years away from graduating high school, and when he does, he's going to get accepted by whatever college he wants to go to and he's going to do great, and so am I. We're both going to work hard and get everything we've wanted. I just—need to wait a little longer to see that happen."

Ms. Gregory stays silent, looking at her solemnly. Ellie meets her gaze steadily, because she knows how to do this, how to look someone in the eye and tell them that everything's going to be fine, and _mean_ it.

Finally, Ms. Gregory gives her a sad smile, saying, "I hope your brother knows how incredibly lucky he is to have a sister like you."

Ellie smiles back. "Oh, trust me, I remind him every single day."

 

*

When Ellie gets home later that afternoon, returning from grocery shopping, Chuck's at the kitchen table doing his homework, but he jumps up to help her with the bags, and helps put the food away as he talks about his day at school, about the fight that happened in the cafeteria that ended with someone getting chili poured all over their head.

He pauses, mid-story, as he pulls out the package of Peeps that she'd bought on a whim. "Uh, Ellie," he says slowly, "not that I don't love desserts made entirely of delicious marshmallow fluff, but I'm pretty sure that Easter isn't for, like, another month."

"They were on sale," Ellie explains, "—besides, you used to love them when you were little, you'd ask for them all the time."

Chuck grins suddenly. "Yeah, Dad and I would have those little mock duels with our Peeps at the kitchen table, pretend to peck each other with our beaks."

"Speaking of Dad, is he home yet? Should I set a place for him at the dinner table?" Ellie asks, her voice casual.

Chuck shrugs. "He hasn't come home from work yet, so I don't know."

Ellie is silent for a moment, then says, "I'll just make some extra spaghetti for him and leave it in the fridge, he can grab it when he comes home."

"Sounds like a plan," Chuck says, not looking upset by Ellie's assumption that their dad won't be home in time for dinner. But then, why would he? Dad coming home in time for dinner is the exception rather than the rule. "So we're having spaghetti tonight, huh?"

"Yup," Ellie says. "Spaghetti for dinner, and Peeps for dessert, how's that sound?"

"Awesome," Chuck says with a grin, and it's easy, as always, to smile back.


End file.
